Tag Archives: Michael Jackson

06/06/2016 · 2:56 pm

Pure Evel

I don’t know why people are sad about the Great Deathwave of 2016. It’s a remarkable opportunity to make a stranger’s life all about yourself.

Muhammad Ali, The Greatest, 1942-2016. A multifarious and complex personality that's tough to categorize, not a prop for your opinions.

Muhammad Ali, The Greatest, 1942-2016. A multifarious and complex personality that’s tough to categorize (especially for a pugilist), not a prop for your opinions.

When a celebrity dies, you now own them. You can take the life’s work of someone you never encountered and reduce it to a personal inspiration. You can interpret their efforts as empowerment for your own agendas. Oh, and you can cherry-pick the qualities of their persona that you agree with, and ignore everything else. A corpse will never call your bluff. Continue reading →

Comments Off on Pure Evel

Filed under Bad Influences, Faint Signals, Idiot's Delight, Nostalgic Obsessions, Saturday Movie Matinee, Worst Of All

Tagged as 1960s, 1970s, 1971, 1977, 1985, 1990s, 1992, 20th Century Fox, Bill Cosby, censorship, corporate crap, Crash Test Dummies (toys), daredevils, Elvis Presley, Evel Knievel, Futurama, George Hamilton, He-Man, John Goodman, John Milius, Michael Jackson, Muhammad Ali, New Jersey, parental advisory labels, PMRC, political correctness, Prince, Shelly Saltman, Spike Lee, Spike TV, Stan Freberg, television, The Fonz, Tipper Gore, toys, Wally Wood

01/24/2016 · 12:32 am

Hate Proof: George Benson’s “Give Me The Night”

George Benson is an American musician, guitarist and singer-songwriter. He began his professional career at twenty-one, as a jazz guitarist. Benson uses a rest-stroke picking technique similar to that of gypsy jazz players such as Django Reinhardt. [Wikipedia]

[Warner Brothers]

I’ve always been impressed when a musician can sing and play an instrument simultaneously. It’s a difficult skill, and it typically has to be learned young. I can’t do it myself, and despite his godly skill on guitar, neither could Frank Zappa.

On occasion, a guitarist involuntarily vocalizes as they play. The great Albert Collins did, and I’ve heard that Carlos Santana does too. It’s not a bad thing, in fact, in talented hands, it’s great. So it is with George Benson.

Continue reading →